England are planning to delay James Anderson’s Test return and stick with an unchanged team against India in Visakhapatnam.
Anderson, his country’s all-time leading wicket-taker, has done enough in the nets during the first Test in Rajkot since his arrival after recovering from a stress fracture of his shoulder to convince England’s medical team he is ready to play this week if needed.
But after England’s admirable performance to take the honours in a drawn series opener – one Trevor Bayliss describes as the best in his 18-month tenure as coach – the same XI is set to take the field again on Thursday.
There appears little doubt that the pitch this week will favour spin significantly more than in Rajkot. England are therefore expected to again deploy three spinners and three seamers, including four all-rounders who will ensure as much batting depth as possible on a surface sure to play to the strengths of the hosts’ Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
That means Anderson will have another week to ready himself for his first match in more than three months – the first Test in Mohali – where it remains to be seen whether predictions of conditions to suit the pace bowlers is born out.
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Bayliss made clear that the management anticipate retaining the same line-up, having switched only Gary Ballance for debutant opener Haseeb Hameed following a shock defeat to Bangladesh in Dhaka, before arriving in India. “We did say before Bangladesh that seven Tests in eight weeks would be difficult, and we would change guys, but I’m not envisaging any changes,” he said.
England do not need to close the door completely yet on Anderson for the second Test – and with that in mind, Bayliss added: “We will look at Jimmy. He’s coming along pretty well.”
England finished the first Test on the front foot on Sunday, with India digging deep on 172 for six to close out the stalemate, thanks to an unbeaten 49 from Kohli. “I thought, effort-wise, it’s probably the best performance since I have been with the team,” Bayliss added. “The energy and effort over five days was close to complete.”
Hameed’s second-innings 82 on debut was just one of several notable individual contributions, including four centuries. “For one so young he’s a very, very good player,” Bayliss said of the teenager. “He’s got the temperament and composure and the game. Time will tell where he ends up, but as a 19-year-old, he’s very, very good.”
The coach could not offer up a complaint about any facet of a performance in which the hundreds came from Joe Root, Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes first time round and then captain Alastair Cook – with his 30th at the highest level – in the second innings.
England’s bowling and fielding, to take a 49-run lead and then put India under pressure on the final day, was also a textbook template for touring India. “We batted against their spinners very well – and we bowled, spin and pace, very well,” said Bayliss. “But it was the effort in the field. We have spoken a lot about having the right attitude and to keep going 100 per cent all of the time, and that game was probably the closest we have been to doing that.”
Spinners Adil Rashid, Moeen and Zafar Ansari also demonstrated improvement from Bangladesh, an upward curve England believe may well be down to the ongoing input from their new specialist consultant Saqlain Mushtaq. “The four spinners have been doing a lot of work with him,” Bayliss said. “Watching them in the nets, they all look confident.
“Where in Bangladesh we struggled with consistency of length, I thought it was a lot better,” he added. “The confidence they get, maybe from working with someone like Saqlain – whatever it is, it’s working. We hope that can continue.”
The collective challenge, however, is consolidation. “One decent Test doesn’t make the series, and the next four will be very different,” Bayliss added. “So we have to continue putting in that kind of effort over the series – or we will come out on the losing side.
“Do that, and we will have a chance of winning.”
Dileep Premachandran: Visakhapatnam pitch should be a different story
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